Jaina Concept of Omniscience

Author(s): Ramjee Singh
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 55

THE BELIEVERS IN OMNISCIENCE
It is the sakti that pervades the entire universe through Yoga of different types.
The Tantra literature as a whole consists of two divisions : Kriya and Yoga. " The elaborate rites of worship and the yogic practices often go hand in hand.”C0 Besides the orthodox systems, the Buddhists and the Jainas also admit the existence of yogic knowledge. Dharmakīrti and Prajñākaragupta and others clearly mention yogic perception. They have also a fullfledged system of Yoga. The Jainas have very greatly developed the science of yoga. Haribhadra compares anālambana yoga to asamprajñāta samādhi,62 of Patañjali which culminates in omniscience. Similarly, the concentration of the Jivas in the fourteenth Gunasthāna (stages of spiritual development) is compared to dharmamegha samādhi' 3 of Patanjali's. To him, since there is unanimity about the aims and objects of yoga as the rcalisation of tiuth, there should be no controversy about its nature also.
(F) The Apprcach of Faith The belief in omniscience has been, to many, more a matter of faith than of reason. The common people hardly question why God is omniscient. Hence, we find in the Rāmāyaṇa, Mahātkārata, Purānas etc, which to a great extent represent the faith, aspirations and attitudes of the common people, a sort of universal acceptance of omniscience of God, deities, and yogins. But accordingly, no appeal is made to logic. There is however some reason behind this apparent neglect of reason. Logic has its own limitations in dealing with super-sensible phenomena. On the other hand, faith being different in nature,
60 Chakravarti C. Tantras, Studies in their Religion and Literature
(Calcutta, Punthi Publishers, 1963), p. 4. 61 Pramāņavārtika, II. 81-87; Nyāya-Bindu, I. 11. Vārttikalankāra,
III. 282–287. 62 Haribhadra, Yoga Vimśika (Agrā, 1922), p. 20. 63 Haribhadra, Yoga-bindu (Ahmedābāda, 1940), 17-18.